A Blog by Jonathan Low

 

Mar 23, 2023

Ukrainian Soldiers In US Master Patriot Missile System Much Faster Than Expected

Threat concentrates the mind. Ukrainian soldiers in the US have mastered Patriot missile systems much faster than expected. 

It normally takes US soldiers up to a year to  absorb all of the sophisticated system's intricacies but the Ukrainians have done so in a couple of months. They are completing training and will return to Ukraine soon. JL 

Lara Seligman reports in Politico:

The Patriot is a highly complex system to operate, and typically takes U.S. soldiers up to a year to learn. But after just a few weeks, the Ukrainians were already able to independently set up and operate the system against a simulated threat in under 45 minutes, which is the U.S. Army’s standard. The Ukrainians, experienced air defenders when they arrived in January, were handpicked by Kyiv to complete the instruction, mastered the American system much faster than expected. "The Ukrainian soldiers are impressive, and a quick study. (Their) drive and dedication made training easy. They are self-sustaining.” A Ukrainian soldier runs across the field, shielding his face from the Oklahoma wind with one hand and dragging a long, fiber-optic cable with the other. He hooks the cable into another cord, linking the control station with the five Patriot launchers that fan out 90 meters apart across the grass, all pointed due north.

 

The soldier is one of 65 Ukrainians, mostly men but a few women as well, who are wrapping up training here to operate the Patriot missile defense system, considered one of the most advanced in the world at shooting down threats such as missiles and aircraft.

 

 

 

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